


Six Hours From Six Feet

by Anonymous



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: (100 words), Alternate Universe, Drabble Series, Gen, Magical Realism, Tanabata, derivative work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 03:17:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13226994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: "I'm back," Oikawa said, stepping into their restaurant.Rows of sweet corn lined the table, fresh from the plantings in April-May. Sugawara was in the kitchen, hair under cloth, looking after creamy sweet soup. Its broth cleared the air and warmed Oikawa from the lungs.





	Six Hours From Six Feet

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [oh, the places you'll go!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7938394) by [sheelia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheelia/pseuds/sheelia). 



> This started in October, 2016 ... then very many rounds of editing. 
> 
> For not providing enough context into the original work, please accept my apologies. I have tried to keep this making sense to people who have not read sheelia's writing first, so -- just assume this is an AU where Suga lives in a little town, and Oikawa was once serious about volleyball.

 

 

> _Dawn: From six feet up;_

One night, among ribbing cicada cries in the thick air of summer, Oikawa and the boy that looked like him figured: Everyone in the town was related. So they decided they were cousins, but Oikawa pleased the heavenly king as a child. Oikawa was far taller than others there.

They played volleyball in the field often.

"Nice serve! You're like a professional!" his cousin said.

A soreness spoke: _"Don't be so arrogant."_

It unsettled him more than his sticky shirt.

_―"Only a fraction can make a career from what they find fun."_

A memory of Oikawa's voice?

Or a dream?

 

 

* * *

 

 

> _New day (New land): From six feet wide;_

There was a train station at the edge of town. Oikawa walked parallel to it after his latest deliveries on the hill, thinking how its tracks looked like fences. It could have been another country on the other side.

"I'm back," Oikawa said, stepping into their restaurant.

Rows of sweet corn lined the table, fresh from the plantings in April-May. Sugawara was in the kitchen, hair under cloth, looking after creamy sweet soup. Its broth cleared the air and warmed Oikawa from the lungs.

Sugawara's smile reached Oikawa's heart and Oikawa felt a shame in thoughts of exploring.

"Welcome home."

 

 

* * *

 

 

> _Sunset: From six feet square;_

"Here again," said Sugawara.

His voice had a bit of a sigh, a fond resignation.

"Here I am," Oikawa replied.

It wouldn't be hard for Sugawara to find him in the house. The two-tatami side room had become Oikawa's somehow. If Oikawa concentrated he could remember playing hide and seek, but understood a spirit saying his childhood never crossed the two metre square.

When Sugawara climbed into the small space, stopped beside a disused loom, Oikawa tried explaining the unfamiliar familiarity.

Sugawara sprayed Oikawa like he was the mould infestation and pointed with rubber gloves to leave it there alone.

 

 

* * *

 

 

> _First watch: From six feet intervals;_

The powers asked Oikawa to assist the next festival's root-work.

"It's here," Oikawa said, wistful. "This is the first time I've been chosen for something like this."

"It's basically a tradition," Sugawara remarked.

"Did you have yours?"

"When I was seven."

Talking, the work went quickly. Together the two hoisted the paper nets. Those should gift good catches to the peninsula's fishermen. Oikawa looked at the wish paper strips his height helped attach. The wafting tanzaku drifted. "I'm supposing there was a reason for waiting."

"There must have been," Sugawara agreed, enviably confident. "It's odd, but, you were born here."

 

 

* * *

 

 

> _Midnight solstice: From six feet circling;_

The full moon, a perfect paper disk, woke to clouds and rain.

Decorations were stripped in a frantic rush. Oikawa's shoes squelched back and forth. The night market languished, abandoned and empty.

Oikawa paused at the port of a path.

Sugawara met him with a lantern.

Privately they walked to the clearing overlooking the Pacific. Past the hoods of their raincoats, the ocean peaks rose and fell to swallow the heavens. The rain fed the hungry waves. The fishermen's boats in the harbour rocked and rolled, thunder in the storm.

Fingers brushed passing a lantern under moon and Milky Way.

 

 

* * *

 

 

> _Rowen_ [1] _(Daybreak): From six feet under;_

A pack of crows pecked at the seeds in the ground. They skillfully hopped from one deposit to another. Their beaks nudged the earth to reveal hidden seedlings and they swallowed with no remorse.

The scarecrow and Oikawa both wore floppy hats and worn gloves. Oikawa watched the crows as they ate despite planting the winter daikon some hours ago. The sun's heat baked Oikawa through his shirt. His sweat reminded him that he was not a scarecrow. The crows were not scared of them, either way.

The crows flew off. Time to start over.

Accidentally, Oikawa started dreaming again.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> ∟ Footnotes:  
> 1 rowen is a second growth of grass [jump back to text]
> 
>  
> 
> ∟ References:  
> [rokuji](https://books.google.com/books?id=xdVkzs6iI1YC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21), an ancient time-keeping system that divided the day into six periods/hours;  
> [tanabata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata), the story and festival of Vega and Altair -- two stars which lost responsibilities due to love, separated by the sky king (heaven/universe) as a result, and may meet on 7/7 so long as there is no rain;
> 
> ※ Please thank sheelia-senpai for the original worldbuilding, and the permission to pull it little sideways.
> 
>  
> 
> Likely few will read this. So, thank you to you too.


End file.
